Welcome to Varndean School

Varndean School is one of the top performing secondary schools in Brighton & Hove. Our GCSE results have been consistently above the national average and were the highest in Brighton & Hove in 2005 (75% 5A*-C).We have been a specialist Technology College since 1998 and as a high performing school were awarded Specialist Schools Mentor Status in 2005 and a second specialism in Music in 2006. A third specialism in Vocational/Applied Learning was awarded in 2007.

Listed in Ofsted’s role of honour in 2005, our recent Ofsted report (April 2007) states “Varndean is a good school…. a vibrant learning community, eager to embrace innovation and change to reach its goals”. We were praised for good teaching with “examples of outstanding practice to be found in several departments” and our curricular provision which is “good, with some outstanding features.”

We are continuously challenging the way we do things and in 2002, after researching good and innovative educational practice, we changed the structure of our day to 3 x 100 minute lessons; this enables us to promote deeper, more meaningful periods of learning. In recognition of our work we were the first school in the City to be awarded Leading Edge status in 2003.

We pride ourselves in being a caring and inclusive community, providing a challenging and nurturing environment for young people to learn and reach their potential. We run gifted and talented programmes for more able students and have an excellent range of extra curricular provision. We are known locally for our excellence in Music and the Arts.

Andy SchofieldHeadteacher

DEPARTMENTS

Each department's staff members, aims, events and news can be found by clicking on the links to the left. There are also useful links to web sites covering syllabi and QCA schemes of work.